


get him to swap our places

by plinys



Category: Fantastic Four (2015)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 03:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4591848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The funny thing about finding out who your soulmate is in fifth grade, is that there’s no instruction manual for what happens next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	get him to swap our places

**Author's Note:**

> I sent Selene some asks on tumblr about the angst possibilities of a soul mate au, and she was a terrible enabler, so thus this fic exists. I hope somebody enjoys the angst. Also probably not exact quotes cause I saw the movie once yesterday and came out of it shipping this, oops.

_Don’t hurt me_.

The letters stand dark against the inside of his forearm, have been there almost as long as he can remember. He traces them with his fingers from time to time, trying to imagine what his soulmate might be like.

A pretty girl like the ones in the movies his brother watches, a pretty girl whose first words to him will be spoken in fear.

Ben feels sick the first time he realizes what that really means, he’s eight years old hiding in his room while his dad’s drunk again and yelling at his mom, staring at the words on his arm as though they can somehow take him away from here. Except it doesn’t work, because he hears a panicked voice in the back of his mind _don’t hurt me_ , and he’s going to be just as bad as the rest of his family.

Finding out he’s wrong a year later, is just about the best thing in the world.

\---

When he first hears the words “Who’s there?” of the lips of his soul mate, Reed doesn’t even realize it.

He’s too scared, to really think straight. Because there’s a kid bigger than him with a baseball bat, and two giant dog. He’s been sneaking around again, and okay maybe stealing, but he’s only ten and ten year olds don’t get sent to jail… Right?

It takes him a week, a week of calling Ben up whenever he gets another idea, a week of sharing lunches at school, knees knocking under the table – a week in which Reed is just very happy to finally have a friend – before he puts two and two together.

The realization comes when it’s hot in the garage and Ben pulls off his Yankees hoodie, exposing words on his arm in a scrawl that Reed instantly recognizes at his own.

“We’re soulmates,” Reed says, the second he puts two and two together.

The look Ben gives him in reply says _duh_ clearly enough, “I thought you were the smart one?”

\---

The funny thing about finding out who your soulmate is in fifth grade, is that there’s no instruction manual for what happens next. For when he’s supposed to take that important step from best friends to lovers.

At fifteen, all Ben can seem to think about is how Reed looks concentrating over their latest prototype, his face scrunched up in concentration. The first word that comes to his mind is _cute_ , and god – when did he become the type of person that thought his best friend in such terms.

It felt embarrassing, and when Reed inevitably looks up from his notes saying, “Stop watching me,” it’s about all Ben can do to keep his ears from turning bright red.

“I can’t help it,” he says instead, which is just about as bad.

His response seems to give Reed pause, because he’s just staring at Ben with confusion.

There’s a small statistical likelihood, records have reported that five percent of soulmates are purely platonic arrangements. People meant to be friend and nothing more than that. It’s not what Ben wants not at all, but if that’s all Reed wanted from him, he would never push for more.

So he says, “Sorry,” even though he doesn’t want to take his words back.

“No, it’s – it’s fine,” Reed, who always speaks so clearly, suddenly floundering for his words is almost more shocking than Ben’s own thought. And he watches with slow anticipation as Reed sets the screwdriver he had been using down on the table and crosses over towards him. So that they are standing mere inches apart.

He always feels better like this, the proximity between them putting Ben instantly at rest.

Ben’s not certain anything can feel better, until Reed pulls his glasses off, just before leaning up to press their lips together hesitantly.

\---

“You’ll only be forty-five minutes away,” Reed says _again_ , as if saying it will make the distance seem less. But even as the words are off of his lips, he knows that that’s going to seem like an eternity away. Soulmates are supposed to be separated, their two halves of a whole, and they have been practically joined at the hip since they first met.

Reed already hates the idea of them being apart. A sick feeling in his stomach makes him want to tell Ben to stay, to get an apartment in the city so that they’ll be closer, but he can’t make the words come out.

Eventually Ben shrugs his shoulders, “Don’t worry. I’ll visit you often enough that you’ll be sick of me.”

“That scientifically impossible.”

\---

Had anyone else called him in the middle of the night, Ben would have just rolled over and ignored them, but this was Reed. And he would follow Reed to the ends of the earth, in this case, apparently literally.

Planting a flag in the ground of another dimension doesn’t compare in the slightest, to the hint of pride in Reed’s voice, and the way his eyes shine through their face marks, as he says “ _We_ did it.”

\---

There’s the beeping of a heart monitor telling him that he’s still alive, but being alive won’t matter at all unless he can see the words written on his arm, see the dark black letters in a familiar hand writing and know that Ben’s still alive.

He needs to know that he didn’t kill his soulmate.

Reed forces his eyes to stare open, swallows down the horror of what has become of his own body, as he tilts his head to the side just enough to see a blur of black against his skin. He can’t read the letters anymore, too stretched to be clear, but they’re there and that’s all that matters.

His voice shakes, throat dry and scratchy, as he asks “Where’s Ben?”

\---

Ben can’t stand to look the mirror, can’t stand to look at himself, and the pain is almost unbearable to the point where he wants to give it all up and lay there until he dies.

Though the worst part of it, isn’t the rocks covering his body, or even the monster that they’ve made him into. The worst part is when he brings those heavy hands up to the stone arms, he can’t find those words that he used to find his solace in.

There’s no sense of comfort, no familiar hand writing, a vague hint of warmth reminding him that somewhere out there is soulmate is alive and cares for him.

For all he knows Reed could be dead.

And there are night, nights after coming back from some distant part of the world, where he hates himself enough to almost wish that he was.

When the general comes to him on one of those nights saying, “We found a lead on Richards, thought you might want to be the one to bring him in?”

There’s no love in Ben heart when he replies, “It’d be my pleasure.”

\---

“I stopped believing in your bullshit a long time ago.”

“You’re my soulmate.”

“Look at me. I’m not your soulmate, anymore. You turned me into something else.”

**Author's Note:**

> as always hmu @ plinys on tumblr, seriously come shout ben/reed hcs at me, pls and thanks


End file.
